There's a lot of discussion lately about dropping "Brazilian" from BJJ. There are plenty of references in this book directly from Japan to the early 1900s in the US to add to that fray, if you want. Besides that, it's a fun historical look at fitness, jiujitsu and self-defense through the years - the attitudes about, reasons for - suffrage, eugenics, feminism and anti Black and Asian racism, as well

One funny anecdote i can't stop thinking about was that some Washington women were so annoyed with Roosevelt (all that manly art and worry over American masculinity?) that they were determined to best him at all his feats he bragged about - up to and including organizing a women's class when Yoshiaki Yamashita came to teach Roosevelt jiujitsu. One rode a relay of horses for 24 hours, lol. I need more of that!

The conclusion of the book brings in topics discussed tying together feminism and self-defense with an eye towards how racism affected it and also mentions my constant concern (oddly not so much discussed in the book i think?) that certain self-defense classes might enforce patriarchy and gender norms while others can indeed empower.